The red line
by RennaEsprit
Summary: He wants to understand her, to solve the puzzle of her strange emotions. Jasper/Alice one-shot.


Thanks to **L.O.S.T I.N T.I.M.E Heather** for beta :)

…

He remembers her telling him that she could see the future. She looked him right in the eyes and the halo of her emotions was strangely dissonant. She was dead set on something, but she also felt anxiety and there was something there that almost felt like fear too. She looked at him not even blinking, biting her lower lip and the hunger made her eyes turned black.

"What are you thinking?" She asked.

"You can see the future," he uttered, "…then why you are afraid?"

She lowered her eyes to the ground.

"Even seeing the future doesn't give me answers to all of my questions."

…

There's never enough time in the south lands. There's so much that is needed to be done before the short period from sunset till dawn, though night isn't over. There are so many things that are needed to be done at this day and at this time, because tomorrow can never come.

If he hasn't left the south lands, he would've done that another way. He wouldn't waste any time. He wouldn't let her to change directions every fifteen minutes, wouldn't let her to ask him meaningless questions every hour, and wouldn't let her to sit and just stare at nowhere for a long time.

Her emotions are always dissonant and she talks about Cullens too often.

…

It takes him three weeks to understand, he can't to this anymore.

There's twenty one nights and twenty one twilight days in three weeks, and if he hasn't left the south lands, he could die twenty one times already and twenty one times could lose it all. And they are just wandering in the forest for twenty one days doing nothing and going nowhere.

He was lost before he had met her, and now they're lost together, her emotions are dissonant as always and it drives him crazy.

He takes her hand.

She turns around and for a moment he's sure her eyes will be defocus as they always are when she peers into the future, but they aren't. She doesn't hide beyond the cover of predestination.

"Alice."

He wants to understand her, to solve the puzzle of her strange emotions, to understand why there're fear and resolution at the same time, and to understand what it she wants from him is.

She's afraid and her fear drives him crazy. He doesn't get why she is afraid. Given that she was really waiting for him, why to fear him now? And suppose she wasn't… then why did she lie?

"What will happen next?" He asks, trying to mask the annoyance, the misfaith, the suspicion in his voice beyond the casual tone.

She lifts her chin.

"I don't know."

He snorts.

She stares at his hand still squeezing her wrist and he lets her go.

"I don't know," she says again. "The future is not an open book. It changes every second. Right now I can not see what will with us happen next."

"This is what scares you."

"Maybe it is."

She stands there, her chin lift in her strong-willed way.

And he smiles for the first time in a long period.

"So we have to make the future define itself, right?"

…

She changes when they find Cullens.

Her emotions become less complicated.

He can feel she likes it here.

Only _he_ doesn't.

He gets their feelings toward him. The vampire from the south lands, one of those wild and violent creatures fighting they own kind like spiders in the glass. The vampire, whose memories are full of pain and blood, the endless war and betrayal. He gets their vigilance and their suspicions. He gets when they following his every step and didn't let him go anywhere near city. He gets it all, but it doesn't make it any easier to bear.

He's just glad she found her home.

…

"Don't you like your room?"

She closes the door and leans to it.

She wears a white shirt and the fabric is almost as white as her skin. Her short hair is a mess.

She looks like a fay or a little porcelain doll.

"It's okay."

"Then why do you want to leave?"

He shrugs his shoulders – he has nothing to say.

She leans towards him.

"I come to ask you to stay." Her fingers find his palm and squeeze it. "I want you to stay."

"Why?"

He wants to shrug his shoulders again, but she doesn't let him.

And it's just...

He had too much emptiness and angriness and loneliness in his life. And all he wants is to make then go away.

He kisses her.

Her legs brace his waist.

And it doesn't matter that Cullens will hear everything.

…

Her head rests on his chest.

"You will stay, right?" She asks that like a scared little girl, who is too afraid of darkness under her bed to let her mom leave the room.

He's silent.

She sits up and tries to read his face.

"Will you stay?" She asks again. And then… "Edward says you're tired of war. And loneliness. And wandering. He says you want to change and to stop killing people. He says…"

He cuts her off with a short, "_Edward_." And then he just leaves.

…

It's easy for him to read other people's emotion.

It's too hard for him to understand what his own means.

He feels Edward standing behind his back, but he doesn't want to turn around. He just stands still, ready to fight.

Only Edward wants to talk.

…

When they return, Cullens gather at the living room. There's Carlisle and Esme, Rosalie and Emmett, and she. Yes, she. Alice.

"I've almost lost ten bucks." Emmett says. "I betted you would tear each others throat."

Rosalie rolls her eyes. "What was he thinking?"

Alice suddenly smiles.

Edward looks right at her, and she already knows what he's about to say. "Jasper thought he loved you."

Emmett wins a bet.

…

She comes to his room when sun is high, and her skin sparkles in the sunlight.

There's smile on her pale lips.

"Do you want me to heal your wounds?" She laughs.

He smiles back at her. "Nah, I already has so many scars and two or three more doesn't make a difference."

"Scars look good on warriors" She traces white crescent scar on his hand with her fingers. "Esme told Edward not to say your thoughts out loud anymore."

He sniffs. "It doesn't matter. You would've found out eventually. It's you who can see the future."

"It's not fair… 'cause he doesn't say what I was thinking."

He presses his finger to her lips.

"I know it anyway."

…


End file.
